Ancient Individuals and Bourdieu in Context: A Historical Anthropological Response

Abstract

This brief response aims at addressing some of the themes covered in the main articles of this special issue of the JAH from the perspective of historical anthropology. The emphasis is sent on the relevance of cultural variability for understanding historical situations, especially those coming from ancient contexts, and considering also the kind of textual and epigraphic sources we dispose of. The Bourdieuian approach to ancient historical contexts is understood within the contributions that the discipline of anthropology has made to historiography, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s and with regards of microhistorical approaches and other anthropologically influenced perspectives in history-writing.